The embodiments of the present invention relate to personal information management (PIM) clients and, more particularly, to processing recurring events within a PIM client. A PIM client can refer to a computer-based system that can coordinate the entry, tracking, and management of personal information for a user. PIM applications can provide functions such as electronic mail, address books, calendaring, instant messaging (IM), project management, and the like. Typically, a PIM application will perform some combination of one or more of these functions. PIM applications support the user in organizing and interacting with his, or her, personal information. Personal information can include appointments, meeting, tasks, social or business contact information, medical information, financial information, or the like, which is related to the user.
An event that has two or more occurrences can be referred to as a recurring event. A recurring event can be defined as a series of independent occurrences of the event or be defined according to a repeat rule specifying a defined pattern of repetition. For example, a task can be performed every Monday, or a meeting can occur on the last day of every month for one year. An identifier can associate each occurrence of the recurring meeting with each other occurrence or, for example, with a “root” event object representing the recurring event as a whole. The identifier can denote that the occurrences of the recurring meeting are not independent calendar events, but rather are related to one another and form the recurring meeting.
A user can invite other users to attend a recurring event through an event invitation. In addition, the user can issue an event update to an existing recurring event, for example, when a meeting time or date for a recurring event must be changed. A user receiving the event update can decide to either accept or decline the request, and send a response to the issuer of the request based upon that decision.